June 09, 2009

Transition Tuesday Week 4

This is the forth post of a weekly series called "Transition Tuesday".
Transition Tuesday is written by Kevin Myers and documents the
transition from iron shoes to barefoot hoof care and hoof boot use.
Rocky and Far are both seasoned endurance horses and have been in iron
shoes for several seasons. Transition Tuesday's weekly blog posts will
document the process and learning curve involved in the transition to
natural hoof care. Feet will change shape, boot fit will improve as
feet change and the learning curve will decrease. The good, the
awesome, the not so good, and what happens along the way. Enjoy!

It has been four weeks since we started the transition to
barefoot for two of our four horses. This seems like a good moment to compare
notes between three of them.

I hesitated for years before trying barefoot because I
thought the transition period would be too long and I thought booting the
horses for training and competition would be more complicated than my patience
would allow. I was wrong on both counts. If either of these reasons are factors
for holding you back from making the transition, you should take comfort in
knowing that the Easycare products really take the stress out of the transition
management, and the transition can be managed in a much shorter span than you
would anticipate. In fact, the transition can evidently be managed over night.

First, I want to confirm the strategy I’ve discussed in
previous posts for the success associated with using athletic tape with Easyboot
Gloves on the hinds. I am using the black 1.5” Mueller brand – you can find
it at larger pharmacies such as Walgreens or at many athletic supply stores.

Note the use of the
athletic tape as I carefully twist the rear boot on with conviction. The fit is
quite snug, but the foot goes in nicely with a few walking steps forward.

We went out for a nine mile blast along the trails at Saguaro Lake on Sunday. We’re heading to Descanso Endurance Ride on
Friday, so we are tapering off the work in anticipation of the 50 on Saturday. Half
way through the ride, we waded the horses into the Salt
River and stood in the water with the horses up to their knees for
about ten minutes. I’d classify it as a good, long soak!

All four feet got a
good soaking.

So did I! I think this
horse has a higher IQ than I do. He knows how to splash the water onto his
chest to cool himself down.

After the soaking, we trotted and cantered our way up a long
incline wash, then up and over a short, rocky mountain trail with good
elevation up and down. No boots were lost or harmed during the experiment!

Setting off from the
river up the incline wash: we soon went into a working canter.

Heading up and over
the mountain.

You can see that the
hind boots stayed exactly where they should be. No muss, no fuss!

We removed the boots when we got home, after a 45-minute
trailer ride home. The feet had enjoyed a good soak.

There was no debris in
the front boots from the sand wash.

The soaking allowed me
to pick off by hand some of the glue from last week (I’ve been remiss in
cleaning the hooves after last week’s glue-on experiment!).

No debris in the rear boot.
Note the athletic tape has stayed in tact.

I’ve been fascinated by the changes in the horses’ feet in
the last four weeks and I have really enjoyed watching the shod horse go
through the usual motions of outgrowing his shoes. Far has definitely adapted
very well to the barefoot transition: there is less breaking out of the hoof
wall than I anticipated as the old nail holes work their way down. His frogs
have all peeled and he got his second trim yesterday. The frog is healthy and
the sole is really beginning to show a nice concave form.

He shows no sign of any soreness when booted. After a
soaking, he may be a little more tender on the rocks, as you would expect. The
feet dry out within a few hours after soaking and become hard again.

Far at four weeks
without shoes – and before his Monday trim.

Far’s feet are clearly
showing signs of expanding closer to the coronet band.

Far’s feet have
adapted well to the change

Red’s shod feet at
four weeks – you can see the epoxy.

Rocky is taking longer to adjust, but he started with
significantly under-run heels. The changes in his feet are also more dramatic:
there is a noticeable widening of the hoof around the coronet band with the new
growth. The angle of the hoof wall is changing, too, in a way that we were
simply not able to achieve – even with a year of shoeing with a focus on
changing the angle.

Rocky’s feet are
clearly going through some changes. You can see the change in angle of the hoof
wall.

Rocky is freshly
trimmed.

We were more aggressive with the removal of the false sole
than we have been with Far. In hindsight, we may have acted too quickly with
him. Fortunately, he is comfortable again, even as the hoof wall breaks out as
the old nail holes grow down. There is some interesting bruising on the outside
of his right hind that looked quite consistent until we pulled the shoes.

You can see the lines
of old bruising on Rocky’s right hind. Note the absence of the red lines in the
recent growth.

When we are out on the trail, we slow down on the rocks for
the shod horse because he shows signs of the occasional sore step when going
across rocky terrain. He has shoes, pads and Equi-Pak, but there still seems to
be less protection than the boots provide to the barefoot horses. I was wishing
all the horses were booted at our training ride in Prescott last weekend so we could move out at
a consistent speed. As we enter the dry summer conditions, the shod horse’s
feet are very brittle and are breaking apart around the nail holes. I’m using
the same four Easyboot Gloves I started with four weeks ago on Far and they
have lots of life in them yet. I called this morning to make an appointment for
the shod horse to be re-set after almost five weeks. You do the math.

Red: the hoof has
begun to grow over the front of the shoe at four weeks.

Red: The hoof walls
are being held together through the dry AZ summer with epoxy and the shoes are
being kept in place with clips. Note how little flare there is to the foot.

We’re off to Descanso on Friday and I’ll be using Easyboot
Glue-Ons. I’ll let you know how it goes next week! I plan to glue the boots
on Thursday and keep a couple of Easyboot Gloves in my saddle pack as a
precaution.

Comments

I have begun to look forward to your weekly article on the transition from iron shoes to boots. This week's article was equally as impressive as the last one. Clear, concise and informative. I love the pictorial as well.

Look forward to the read after the Descanso ride. Take care, Kevin, and best wishes for you and your horses.